Old City (Jerusalem)

The Old City is a .35-square-mile walled area within the modern city of Jerusalem, and it constituted the entire city until 1860. It was traditionally divided into four uneven quarters: the Muslim Quarter in the northeast, the Christian Quarter in the northwest, the Armenian Quarter in the southwest, and the Jewish Quarter in the southeast.

The city was built in 440 BC, 146 years after Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the original city, but the entire city was totally destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The northern part of the city was rebuilt by Roman emperor Hadrian in 130 AD as "Aelia Capitolina", and, during the Byzantine period, the city was extended southwards and again enclosed by city walls. In 637 AD, the city came under Muslim rule, and the caliph Umar was warmly welcomed due to a Christian prophecy that "a poor, but just and powerful man" would rise to be a protector and ally to the Christians of Jerusalem. Umar, a great warrior who led an austere life, was the fulfillment of the prophecy, and he prohibited Muslims from gathering in prayer at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (as he himself had refused to do), as he did not want their visit to mean that the church would have to be converted into a mosque. In 1099, the Christian crusaders captured the city during the First Crusade and slaughtered its Muslim and Jewish population, but it was recaptured by the Muslim warrior Saladin on 2 October 1187. Saladin then summoned the Jews and permitted them to resettle in the city. In 1229, the city was handed over to King Frederick II of Germany as part of a treaty, and the city was briefly lost to the Muslims of Kerak in 1239 before being recaptured in 1243. In 1244, the Khwarezmians Tatars took the city and razed its walls, rendering it defenseless and delivering a blow to the city's status. From 1535 to 1542, new walls were erected by the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and his wall had six gates. In 1860, the Jewish Mishkenot Sha'ananim neighborhood was established outside of the Old City, ending its exclusivity as the city of Jerusalem, and converting the original city into the "Old City" district.

In 2007, the Old City had a population of 36,965 people, with 27,500 being Muslims, 5,681 Christians, 3,089 Jews, and 790 Armenians. Following the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, Jordan occupied the Old City and expelled its Jews, but Israel recaptured the Old City in 1967 and reunited "East Jerusalem" with West Jerusalem. In 1980, East Jerusalem was formally annexed to Israel, but the annexation was declared null and void by the United Nations Security Council, and it was regarded as being an occupied Palestinian territory.